Getting into Albion's Seed. It's...very dense. But well written and enlightening.
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Getting into Albion's Seed. It's...very dense. But well written and enlightening.
SPQR was very good. Brought back a lot of memories of Tech Rome and Dr. Mead's classes.
The Green Ember is still going, and we're all liking it. If your kids like stuff like RedWall, this is worth checking out (talking animals battling it out in a semi-middle ages world with kings and swords and that whole bit).
We also recently discovered a new (to us) series we like called Big Words, Small Stories. A former kindergarten teacher we know has said that the trick to teaching young kids big words is to pick ones with easy meanings (so they can understand the concept and plug it in). These are really fun to read aloud and work on that level.
I just started the latest by the author of The Martian. Only a page or two in, but I'm excited for it.
To balance it out I'm also going to be reading a non-fiction book that came very highly recommended by a legal/political podcast I listen to (Advisory Opinions, by some Dispatch contributors). It's called The Great Dissenter and is about the one judge who voted against Plessy v. Ferguson (separate but equal) and apparently was the one dissenting vote on a lot of stuff where we'd now be on his side. Supposed to be a very good book about a very interesting and important figure.
Prof Mead -- So Constantine founded a new capital city for the Eastern Empire in 330. But that was still a long time after Narmer unified Egypt, which was when?
Entire bleary-eyed 8AM class [deadpans in unison] -- Thirty one hundred BC.
Mead -- Yep. And what grade was I in?
Class [still deadpaning] -- Second.
Mead -- That's right. And I was a true second grader. Not some redshirt!
That may be a bold assumption given some of our posters' leanings.apparently was the one dissenting vote on a lot of stuff where we'd now be on his side.
Just finished The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson and Daughter of the Morning Star by Craig Johnson..
About to start.. Thrawn Ascendancy: book 3 Lesser Evil by Timothy Zahn
Yep I am very much looking forward to the Ashoka show and the return of Thrawn and Ezra
I'm a couple of hundred pages into Project Hail Mary and so far it's more like The Martian than his previous book (Artemis) was. If you liked The Martian, you'd probably like Project Hail Mary. Different types of problems, but still sort of in that vein of lots of little problems, let's figure out how to "science" them. It hasn't quite hooked me the way The Martian did (higher stakes, but weirdly less unputdownable, at least for me).
Apologies for verbing a word and making up a new one in the same post. That's indulgent.
I've read a few of Harlan Coben's books in the last couple of weeks. Good mystery/thriller type writer. If you're familiar with him, I'm way out of order in my reading--mainly because I just went with what I found at the library.
Started with Win which is a sort of sequel to his main series of books about Myron Bolitar. Win is Bolitar's best friend from the series, but this book is from Win's perspective and without Myron in it at all. Win is an amoral rich guy who has a strong sense of justice. He likes to beat up people who hurt those who can't defend themselves. He shows up in the series as Myron's protector (even though he's a small guy, he's a martial arts expert and pretty well ruthless in a fight). In this book, he's trying to track down someone involved in a 20 year old terrorist act. Generally Coben is witty and pretty tight in his writing.
The other two books were an audio (Long Lost) and a paperback (One False Move). Both are Myron Bolitar books. Both were page turners, hard to turn off/put down. Nothing deep, but generally fun and fast moving. If you've read any of Lee Child's Reacher stuff, there's some similarity--though Myron and Win are very different characters from Reacher.
By the way, Leviathan Falls releases tomorrow.
Finished The Expanse yesterday. Overall it’s a very good series. They did a pretty good job of finishing up the series. If you create a super-powered villain it’s hard to finish it without having a contrived ending. I was worried about that. Thought they did ok with resolving the situation. Was a bit surprised that there was one loose end they never tied up. Good series. Glad I invested in it
Has anybody read any of Erich Von Daniken's books? His first book, Chariots of the Gods, was written in 1968, and he's written about 30 books since then. My wife gave me 3 of his latest books for Christmas. My favorite out of these 3 is Eyewitness to the Gods. All of his books are written very well and they're all very interesting.